An Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility in Chemical Research

In chemistry, what are the responsibilities of the researcher from a social and institutional perspective? Obviously, a researcher in chemistry often handles highly hazardous products. Products that can harm environment and people. It is therefore crucial to act according to the Precaution Principle. Precaution is linked to the idea of a moral and political responsibility of collective type; it relates to the consequences in the medium and long-term of human action or the cumulative effect of individual actions whose effects or likelihood are impossible to predict. Indeed, the action of individuals often takes place in the context of community – i.e. businesses, governments, universities, etc. The actions of individuals are absorbed and can reach consequences that we can hardly relate to the initial intent. In other terms, the researcher has to be aware that his own individual responsibility falls within the responsibility of a larger entity and that, as a result, the consequences of his actions can be way more serious than what they look when taken separately. Individual responsibilities are modified when they are exercised within a community – e.g. a business: the consequences of individual action can have a much more significant scale than if they were completely isolated. These responsibilities, while individual, must be understood in the context in which they operate.